Sunday, 22 August 2010

With the recent completion of the 3rd instalment of the Hulkageddon last month, @CyberinEVE, author of Hands Off, My Loots!, asks: "Griefing is a very big part of EVE. Ninja Salvaging, Suicide Ganking, Trolling, and Scamming are all a very large part of the game. What do you think about all these things? You can talk about one, or all...but just let us know your overall opinion on Griefing, and any recommendations you may have to change it if you think it's needed."

There is risk in everything that you do in Eve, no matter how peaceful your intentions, and that is the way it is supposed to be. The real problem with the game in this respect is not scams, heists, ninjas or anything like that – the problem is the people who do not understand or accept this risk. Pilots need to stop thinking like humans and start thinking like capsuleers.

Humans have a limited life span and as such limited opportunity to make money, form relationships and perform activities. But capsuleers have all the time in the world. Death is a minor event and even the loss of an entire fortune can easily be regained in time.

I personally think that education is the key to people learning how to protect and counter all the “darker” traits of this game. CCP’s tutorial covers basic flight and mechanics and to complicate it further wouldn’t help new people get started, it would probably scare a lot of people off! But Eve has a fantastic community which provides guides, blogs and forum help on avoiding the darker pitfalls of the game. This information is freely available, however not everyone will do the reading before jumping into something and so there will always be lessons learned the hard way. The trick is to pick your self up and get on with it. Eternal life remember, think like a capsuleer!

Lets take a look at the specific areas raised in the banter question:

Ninja Salvaging

Salvage has no owner – first come first serve – that is how it was intended to be. Probing out your mission and salvaging it is fine. Get used to it.

If you want to keep the salvage generated by your wrecks then there are of course things you can do such as work in quieter systems for less popular agents or have a friend come and salvage your deadspace pockets behind you. If you are planning on making a long term living from running missions then Marauders are perfect for mission running and salvaging as you go. Simples!

If a ninja loots your can and goes red… and you decide to engage… chances are that you will learn an important lesson in trying to pvp in a pve ship. Ninjas that do this usually have a trick or 2 up their sleeves - it’s an important lesson and if you are going to learn it the hard way it is worth learning early...and not in a Kronos like certain friend of mine (albeit some very nice friends of his did eventually arrive to save his sorry butt with some RR... and despite dipping to 1% hull at one point he eventually got away!).

Suicide Ganking

Again, simple mechanics here that need to be drilled into the minds of people who pick this game up:

1. The undock button is the consent to pvp button.

2. High sec is not safe space it is simply safer.

3. CONCORD is there to punish criminals, not to protect you.

4. You were not given the gift of eternal life with the intention that you would never have to use it!

But again there are often things you can do against suicide ganking such as using common sense when buying and moving expensive items, using the right ship for the job, not being afk or using autopilot.

As for Hulkageddon… this gets SOOO much publicity, in the news, on the forums, adverts on Eve related websites… it is EVERYWHERE. People have plenty of notice that it is coming and that it’s time to dock up the mining barges.

Trolling

I have been a member of various forums, chatrooms and online communities on topics such as parenting, gardening, jewellery making, tarot, weddings, conservation, animal welfare and of course a ton of MMOS. Not once have I found a 100% troll or smack free environment.

The anonymous mask of the internet encourages all of us to at least speak honestly and without fear of repercussions upon our real person. It should be no surprise that some people will take it further and become full on trolls who just want to cause a fuss. Forums full of trolls and games full of smack-talkers is not unique to Eve Online in anyway shape or form, it goes with the territory. Infact in comparison to other MMOS I actually find Eve’s forum community much less antagonistic.

Of course it is easily countered. There is a block option in game and you can simply ignore people on the forums. It’s really not that hard to do.

Scamming

Over the last few years the contract system has had many tweaks which have made it even harder to fall for scams involving miss-promoted items and misleading decimal points. But people still fall for it over and over again. It happens – and because it happens it will continue.

The fact is ALL contract scams can be easily countered by reading things properly. Trade box scams are another one that catches newer players but again and this is something that ones own eyes can always solve. Besides which, legit traders always have room for another contract!

In addition, corp. heists and business/lottery scams are all very much part of Eve and will continue for as long as people fall for them. But they are often easily countered with a little bit of common sense and a small enough dose of mistrust to make you use your head without becoming too paranoid.

Griefing

Well firstly you have to think about how you define griefing. Some people think that griefing is when you get a war dec, others think it is when you are camped in a station. Some people would call piracy griefing, other people would say it was smacking in local. The term gets bandied about far too often to describe perfectly legitimate game mechanics that someone hasn’t worked out how to counter yet.

True griefing involves personal attacks, constant personal harassment and abuse of exploits that prevent you from playing the game (that’s playing the game at all, not playing it exactly how you want to play it). Things like this are petitionable.

Make Eve a safer place?

To take things like scams or ganking out of Eve would be to take away part of the heart of it and if you started there where would it stop? Are you going to ban piracy? Are you going to stop people probing each other out? What about the markets? Many people have no clue of the fierce isk battles going on there; every time you buy or sell something you are unwittingly engaging in someone else’s market pvp!

It’s all part of the game. All pilots should learnt his and then learn how to live smart. Learn to think like a capsuleer – because these things are not griefing, they are just part of Eve’s Darwinism.

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